Technical How urgent a fix is this? (heavily corroded heating pipe)

[Tulip]

Hello again, thank you for all the useful hints and tips to my other question.

Tulip has now arrived. (Lounge 1.2 manual 2015) Taking a good look (from above), the most obvious problem that she has is a heavily corroded pipe at the front of the car, between the exhaust manifold and the engine block. Reading through the forum, this appears to be a common issue related to the coolant and all subsequent associated issues. How urgent an issue is the pipe in the picture below? Thank you in advance.

Zoom in

 

[jrkitching]

How urgent an issue is the pipe in the picture below

In my opinion, very, as in 'do not drive the car until it is fixed'.

Sudden loss of coolant will very likely result in HG failure. It would be a shame to spoil an otherwise sound car for the sake of a simple job.

 

[steveras57]

IF that splits or bursts you will virtually instantly loose most if not all of your coolant ,which in turn will cause massive overheating and possible head gasket to fail and/or a warped head,- it is in your best interests to replace this pipe A.S.A.P and id advise not running the car again until its done.

 

[Tulip]

Thank you. I thought as much.

What exactly is this repair called, i.e. what do I ask for when ringing around?

Is there a preferred brand of replacement part?

Any idea how much a garage is likely to charge?

Thank you in advance.

 

[John202020]

Part

For Fiat 500 1.2 2008 -2014 Panda 1.1-1.2 2004 -2018 Coolant Water Pipe 55185422 | eBay UK

Part Number: 55185422, 4680337, 55245750. Fiat Panda MK3 1.1L 1.2L 1.4L 2003-2011. Fiat Panda MK4 1.2L 1.4L 2012-on. 1 x Water Coolant Pipe. Fiat 500 1.2L 1.4L 2008-2016. Fiat 500c Cabriolet 1.2L 1.4L 2009-2016.

ebay.us

Fitting about an hour

 

[steveras57]

About an hour and a half at an independent garage roughly £150 quid in labour plus the cost of the pipe and a coolant refill!

 

[jrkitching]

About an hour and a half at an independent garage roughly £150 quid in labour plus the cost of the pipe and a coolant refill!

For anyone doing the job themselves, just syphon out enough coolant to get the level below that of the pipe, and if you work cleanly, put it back in at the end. One advantage of this method is that you know how much needs to be in there.

For a garage, the additional labour to do this probably exceeds the price of the coolant.

And if it's been in awhile, it's a good opportunity to change it anyway.

 

[Tulip]

Thank you for all the replies. @steveras57 this might be a candidate to add to your 'inspection' guide. From what I can see (from above), everything else looks OK given the age.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

About an hour and a half at an independent garage roughly £150 quid in labour plus the cost of the pipe and a coolant refill!

I bought this very pipe, but to fit our 1.2 Panda, from Shop4parts https://www.shop4parts.co.uk/?name=store&op=Product&ProdID=18786 and it was much cheaper than the price FIAT wanted for a genuine part. It is branded "Original Birth" which worried me when I saw that but in fact it's been on for several years without any problems and seems as good as a genuine part. I've had other stuff from them also branded this name and it's been more than Ok. In fact, over the years I've bought quite a lot of stuff from them for both Pandas we've owned and my oldest boy's Punto and never had an issue with any of it, although some of the brands are "foreign" to me but you need to know they source a lot of their stuff direct from Italy so the brands are sometimes ones we're not familiar with. Of course, if you're not doing the job yourself you'll just have to go with what the workshop can get.

 

[jrkitching]

and seems as good as a genuine part

wouldn't be difficult, judging by the regularity with which these corrode out.

 

[steveras57]

wouldn't be difficult, judging by the regularity with which these corrode out.

probably better

 

[Jockstrap]

Daft laddie but is that the right metal fitting? The OP has a 2015 car.
If this is the pipe, make sure access to the retaining bolt first.
I had my radiator off for access. Photo of the nut (car not me).

 

[Tulip]

That's a great photo.
I assume the retaining bolt is the one highlighted? Tulip is a 2015 1.2, with the older radio.

I have a feeling that I don't have enough tools / patience / skills to DIY.

 

[Jockstrap]

Yup that it.
Getting the pipe out is a bit of a fankle, but patience I'm told is a virtue. I prefer expletives

 

[steveras57]

Yup that it.
Getting the pipe out is a bit of a fankle, but patience I'm told is a virtue. I prefer expletives

Patience is in short supply and as well as a virtue is also hard to acquire! conversely expletives are plentiful! I personally have hundreds!

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Yup that it.
Getting the pipe out is a bit of a fankle, but patience I'm told is a virtue. I prefer expletives

As you say, that's the bolt. I've done a few of these and you need to be careful with it. Felicity's (see my avatar picture) snapped off. That was great fun but I got it out by welding a nut to what was left of it - luckily weld doesn't stick to cast iron very readily. The other ones all came out but one at least were very marginal. I've taken to spraying them with plus gas and than repeatedly tapping them with a small hammer to try to loosen the hold of the rust - seems to work.

The other end, where it gets pushed into the back of the water pump housing can be quite a struggle. It has a rubber "O" ring round it (later versions have a more substantial ring than very early ones like my Felicity) and it makes a water tight seal by squeezing the ring into the hole with it as you push the pipe into the hole. Clean the hole up with some abrasive and coat the seal with rubber grease or silicon grease or some other non mineral derived lubricant - you need to push it into place pretty hard but, if the wee bracket where the bolt goes hasn't been bent it's fully home when the hole lines up with the threaded hole.

By the way, wiggling it around behind the manifold is difficult but doable - I take the heat shield off - don't know if it is doable with the shield in place?